For a company that produces a cheese called The Laughing Cow, its sense of humour seemed in dangerously poor taste.

The processed cheese giant Bel has narrowly avoided a mass boycott by French shoppers after a supposedly humorous summer promotion aimed at children was slammed as offensive to people with learning difficulties.

With its famous Mini Babybel – round, red wax-covered processed cheeses ubiquitous in lunchboxes worldwide – the company was giving away ink stamps for children in France this summer. One read: "Des vacances de malade mental", meaning loosely "having a mental holiday" or literally "holidaying like a mentally ill person".

French associations for parents of children with learning disabilities immediately expressed outrage and threatened a boycott of the company and all its products, including Boursin soft cheese and the foil-wrapped Kiri cheese, a French children's staple.

Christel Prado, head of Unapei, the union of French associations for parents of children with learning difficulties, warned that the language used on the inkstamps could cause "unimaginable damage" and allow children to feel free to use the same terminology to discriminate against those with learning difficulties. She warned that this type of discrimination was already a huge problem that was not being properly dealt with.

Parents' groups only backed down from their plans for a boycott and a possible legal complaint after the cheese company, which was founded in France, issued a public apology.

The company director, Etienne Lecomte, told Le Parisien he profusely apologised for the "extremely clumsy" campaign and that an internal inquiry was underway to establish who thought up the idea, although he said there had been "no deliberate intention" to cause offence.

He said the campaign would be stopped immediately and no new stamps sent out to supermarkets even if it was too late to recall stock already in stores.